Overseas Detention of U.S. Citizens

Justice Center Detention Case Argued Before the Supreme Court

In 2008, the Supreme Court heard two cases that asked whether U.S. citizens detained by the U.S. military at a U.S. prison in Iraq at the behest of the Iraqi government could challenge their detention in federal court. Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center Attorney Joseph Margulies represented Mohammad Munaf and Shawqi Omar, who were being held by the United States at Camp Cropper in Iraq without judicial review. The Court held that there was federal jurisdiction to review the prisoners' detention, but that the jurisdiction could be exercised only in the narrow circumstance where transfer of the prisoner to the Iraqi government would pose a grave risk the prisoners might be exposed to torture.